EDUCATION

Religious schools should be free to follow
beliefs, Dutton says (The
Guardian, Australia) May 19 - Peter Dutton has called for the entrenchment of “religious freedoms”,
including the right of religious schools to sack gay teachers, and for parents
to withdraw their children from the anti-LGBTI bullying program Safe Schools.

’Thank the Party!’ Inside China’s Muslim
brainwashing camps(Sydney Morning Herald) May 18 - Almaty, Kazakhstan:Hour upon
hour, day upon day, Omir Bekali and other detainees in far western China’s new
indoctrination camps had to disavow their Islamic beliefs, criticise themselves
and their loved ones and give thanks to the ruling Communist Party.

Other

The Guardian view on US religion: the
Christian right is breaking up (The
Guardian, Australia) May 14 – (Opinion: Editorial) One of the most interesting and important
developments in the American culture wars, which is to say in American politics
and self-understanding, is playing out inside the major Christian groupings
there: evangelical Christianity and Roman Catholicism.

POLITICS

Senior Mormon faces probe over Liberal
Party membership(Sydney Morning Herald) May 18 - A senior Mormon recently elected to a powerful position in the
Victorian Liberal Party has been accused of not being a legitimate member,
fuelling tensions over the rising influence of ultra-conservatives in the state
branch.